EXTREME ANOREXIC: I Don’t Want To Be Role Model…Shocking Story Of World’s Thinnest Woman (WARNING: Graphic Image)

Weighing
just FOUR stone, extreme anorexic Valeria
Levitin is thought to be the thinnest woman in the world. Her malnourished
figure and matchstick-thin thighs should serve as a stark warning about the
dangers of eating disorders.

But
worryingly, Valeria says she
gets FAN MAIL from girls desperate to copy her skeletal look. The
39-year-old says:

“I have received emails from young
girls who want me to teach them how to be like me”. “All the letters I’ve had
are from women, mainly in their twenties, who see me as some kind of inspiration”

“This is why I want to campaign
against anorexia. I am not going to teach them how to die. It is not a game, it
is not a joke, it is your life”.

Valeria, who developed her eating disorder
as a teenager, has chosen to speak out about how the illness has ruined her
life — and how she is desperate to win her battle in order to have a family.

“I want to share my
story to help sufferers and their families from repeating my fate”, says Valeria, who is originally from Russia but now lives in Monaco. “I
want young people to live happy, healthy and meaningful lives. Anorexia has
made me lonely, unattractive and repulsive for the people around me.”

Healthy ... 5ft 8in Valeria weighed 10st aged
19

Rosie Hallam / Barcroft

At 5ft 8in, Valeria’s weight should be between 9st and 12st, according to NHS
advice. Instead she is a horrifying 4st 3lbs, less than HALF of what
her lightest healthy weight should be.

At 16, and weighing 10st, Valeria moved
to Chicago, USA, with her mum and stepdad. The move brought even more pressure
to be slim.

She said:

“The environment was very different.
I wanted to be liked everyone and I thought that if I lost weight, I would be
accepted”.

“I started cutting out certain foods
from my diet — I wouldn’t eat sugar or carbohydrates”. “I became trapped in a
vicious circle where I needed to lose more weight to feel happy with myself”.

“Now it’s almost impossible to put
the weight I’ve lost back on because my body can’t process many foods”.

When
a classmate made a cruel comment about Valeria’s figure, she became even more
determined to lose weight.

She
explains: “We were playing football
and during the game a man said, ‘I know how we can win. We need to put
Valeria’s big ar*e in the goal’. It shattered my whole world”.

By
the time she was 23, Valeria’s dress size had plummeted from a healthy size 12
to a tiny size six. And attempts at getting into modelling only made matters
worse — because she was told she was STILL too fat.

Valeria’s passion was ballet and she dreamed of becoming a dancer. But at 24,
and weighing just 6st, she was banned from dancing over concerns she would
injure herself.

For
the next ten years she saw more than 30 health specialists, though once dipped
to a dangerously low 3st 10lbs.

Early years ... Valeria believes her mother's
criticism is partly to blame for anorexia

Rosie Hallam / Barcroft

She says now:

“This disease is not about being
cured by a doctor”. “It’s a deeper problem than that; it’s a lack of harmony
between body and soul. I never gained any weight seeing specialists. I have
never been hospitalised.

“The best cure I ever found was when
I said to myself, ‘I’m going to recover”.

“I was feeling better and when you
feel better your body starts to come back to normal. When you become healthier
your body will start eating, not vice versa.

“You don’t force yourself to eat
then become better, it’s not like that”.

Today
she takes supplements to counter the risk of bruising and avoids situations
where she could fall.

Now
Valeria believes the solution could lie in moving back to Moscow. There
is one incentive to get well again — having a baby via a surrogate. It is
something she feels she can do if she can get herself healthy. “I think moving
back to Moscow would help me once again feel at ease with myself”, she says.

“I
would love to have a family because I feel I have so much to give”. “But
obviously it wouldn’t be right to have a baby when I am ill. It wouldn’t be
fair on the child”.

“I
want to stand up to anorexia. I’ve never given up on anything in my life and
I’m not about to give up now”. “I must win, in order to feel that my life
hasn’t been wasted”.